Navigation
•
Home
•
Members
•
Papers
•
Forums
•
Search
•
Signup
•
Links
•
Contact Us
•
About
Top 10
Popular Essays
Rated Essays
Newest Essays
Report
Print
Add to Favorites
Report
Messages
Rate
Similar Reports
Help
The heart of darkness (Click to select text)
Heart of Darkness centers on Marlow, an introspective sailor, and his journey up the Congo River to meet Kurtz, a reportedly idealistic man of great abilities. Marlow takes a job with the Company piloting a steamship in the Belgian Congo. Marlow encounters widespread idiocy and absurd inefficiency in the Company's stations. The native inhabitants of the region have been impressed into service for the Company, and they suffer terribly from overwork and ill treatment at the hands of the Company's agents. When Marlow arrives at the Central Station, under the control of the general manager, an unwholesome, conspiratorial character, he finds that his steamship has been sunk and spends several months waiting for parts to repair it. His interest in Kurtz grows during this period. The manager and his favorite, the brick maker, seem to fear Kurtz as a threat to their position. Kurtz is rumored to be ill, making the delays all the more costly. Marlow eventually gets the parts he needs to repair his ship, and he and the manager set out with a few agents (whom Marlow calls pilgrims because of their strange habit of carrying long, wooden staves wherever they go) and a crew of cannibals on a long, difficult voyage up the river. They come across a hut with firewood stacked and a note saying it is for them but to approach cautiously. Natives attack them and the helmsman is killed before Marlow frightens the natives away with the steam whistle. They come to Kurtz's Inner Station, expecting to find him dead, but a Russian trader there assures them everything is all right and reveals that he is the one who left the wood. The Russian claims Kurtz has enlarged his mind and cannot be subjected to the same moral judgments as normal people. Kurtz has established himself as a god with the natives and gone out on brutal raids in the surrounding territory in search of ivory. The pilgrims bring Kurtz out of the station house on a stretcher, and a large group of native warriors pours out of the forest and surrounds them. Kurtz speaks to them and they disappear into the woods. They bring Kurtz aboard. A beautiful native woman appears on the shore and stares out at the ship; the Russian implies that she is somehow involved with Kurtz and has caused trouble before with her influence over him. The Russian reveals to Marlow, under promise of secrecy, that Kurtz had ordered the attack on the steamer in order to make them believe he was dead and turn back so he could stay. Then he leaves, as the pilgrims do not trust him, and the manager has plotted to have him hanged. Kurtz disappears in the night, and Marlow goes out to find him crawling on all fours towards the native camp. Marlow stops him and convinces him to return to the ship. They set off down the river, but Kurtz's health is failing fast. Marlow listens to him talk while he pilots the ship, and Kurtz entrusts him with a packet of personal documents, including an eloquent pamphlet on civilizing the savages which ends (as Kurtz seems to have forgotten) with a scrawled message that says, "Exterminate all the brutes!" The steamer breaks down and they have to stop for repairs. Kurtz dies, uttering his last words while Marlow is present: "The horror! The horror!" Marlow falls ill soon after and just barely pulls through. He returns to Europe and goes to see Kurtz's Intended. She is still in mourning, even though it has been over a year since Kurtz's death, and she praises him as a paragon of virtue and achievements. She asks what his last words were, but Marlow cannot bring himself to shatter her illusions with the truth. Instead, he tells her Kurtz's last word was her name.
Recent Board Topics
Please drop by and sign up.
[
Submit Essay
] - [
Privacy
] - [
Disclaimer
] - [
Email Us
]
Copyright 2003 EssayFarm.com